Sister Ray

At some point you confront the fact that you’ve evolved into the person you’ll be forever. On Believer, the sophomore effort by Sister Ray, the expansive folk project led by Toronto-based singer-songwriter Ella Coyes, they evaluate what it means to hold your center while continually reappraising how to make sense of the world. Conjuring the barbed alternative folk and sweeping Americana of Tom Waits, Smog, and Lucinda Williams, the album unfurls and claws towards a greater emotional precision. Patient, heaving guitar lines defer generous space to shimmering keys and steady percussion, all held together by Coyes’ unmistakable voice.

Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, Coyes worked with frequent collaborator and producer Jon Nellen (Big Thief, Nick Hakim), as well as Marc Ribot (Tom Waits), Paul Spring (Holy Hive, Fleet Foxes, El Michaels Affair), and Isaiah Barr (Dev Hynes, David Byrne) to experiment with a new process: pushing themselves to cut a song a day with minimal revisions to let the seams show. Exploring a form of songcraft inspired by the meditative power of repetition, instrumental synchronicity, and the many ways emotions can hang heavy in a song, they foreclosed on the option to second guess themselves. Instead, they created an outlet for all the contemplations that sit on the tongue and behind the teeth. What emerged was a collection of tracks, both luminous, lived-in — imbued with a stirring confidence and designed to stare down a private form of truth.

Throughout, they confront the unnerving parts of our psyche where rage, envy, and anguish take up residence. “Magic” is a resolute and joyous Valentine to the self, adorned with victorious horns to match; “Believer” cranks the tension on a golden-toned yearning for salvation in the face of skepticism; elsewhere, “Wings” captures the playful and bewildering contradiction of slowed-down POV roller coasters, of longing to fly and also remain tethered.

From learning how to extend grace to family and map the terrains of relational unravelings, to reshaping the body into a refuge, Believer is a striking testament to the countless ways we can redefine how to stick the landing Born and raised in the Alberta prairies of Sturgeon County, and now based in Toronto, the 25-year-old artist earned widespread attention with their acclaimed debut effort, Communion and follow up EP, Teeth. Backed by ginla’s Joe Manzoli and Jon Nellen, both of whom previously played with Adrianne Lenker and Lorely Rodriguez (Empress Of), the record was an unvarnished portrait of heartbreak, and the mundane realizations of how the experiences that comprise your past instruct how you move through the world.

The album was longlisted for the 2022 Polaris Prize, and across both releases they have been featured in Pitchfork, Audiotree, Paste, NPR, The Guardian, Line of Best Fit and more, along with tours supporting Hurray For The Riff Raff, and appearances at Pitchfork Festival in Paris and London, Primavera Weekender. If the tracks on Communion were fueled with an intentional sense of urgency, for their songwriting to serve as a vehicle for excavating revelations in motion, Believer yearns in a different direction. It rings with the certainty that self-assurance is cultivated through the cracks of discomfort.